A Day in the Life of a Senior Leader

Chapter 18. The Seven Circles of Meeting Hell

It’s hell. I’ve been to all seven circles. There are no fixes. Knowing which one you’re sitting in is a start:

First circle: The sloppy and the unprepared

Meetings start late and run over. Attendees have not read the pre-supplied material, so we spend most of the time answering questions we had already answered elsewhere.

Second circle: The distracted

Attendees are not paying attention to the meeting. They sit there on their phones and computers. No one is clear about why they are here, but they don’t really care because they’re busy doing something else.

Third circle: The one-more-thing-ers

Humans wait until the meeting is over to raise a trivial issue because they feel they need to be heard, and why not—sure, let’s fill the time with uselessness because you like to be heard and/or must have the last word.

Fourth circle: The relitigators

Decisions already made are randomly reintroduced because the seven hours we already spent litigating them clearly were not enough. The humans involved think the value is the debate and not forward progress.

Fifth circle: The explainers

A handful of humans lecture endlessly. The rest of us listen, wondering when we’ll be able to add to the conversation, which is a time that will never arrive because explainers don’t listen.

Sixth circle: The all-the-time-ers

We meet all the time. Daily. Because some people believe progress can be made only via the very same meeting. This is literally their ...